


A New York Summer Spent Without You

by totosbeak



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Confused Choi Yeonjun, Established Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Hurt Choi Beomgyu, Hurt Choi Soobin, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sad Ending, Soft Choi Soobin, Sweetheart Choi Beomgyu, Sweetheart Choi Soobin, Whipped Choi Beomgyu, Whipped Choi Yeonjun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-12 12:28:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29010558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/totosbeak/pseuds/totosbeak
Summary: Yeonjun falls out of love with Soobin after being in a relationship with him for 2 years. And there's only one reason, one person, at blame.Choi Beomgyu, a boy he met in New York on a summer vacation. A summer vacation he was originally supposed to go on with Soobin, the 3 months that he was supposed to spend with the man of his dreams. However, over the course of those 3 months, the "man of his dreams" gradually becomes someone else.OrBeomgyu doesn't know about the boy back at Yeonjun's hometown. Soobin doesn't know about the boy at New York. Things have a messy ending.
Relationships: Choi Beomgyu/Choi Yeonjun, Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun
Comments: 5
Kudos: 37





	1. Chapter 1

“You’re not going to leave this room.”

Yeonjun huffs as he paces around, whispering a string of curses under his breath. Taking long, slow strides, he keeps his eyes glued to the floor to avoid catching a glimpse of Soobin’s personal possessions; the last time he had spotted one, he had felt an overwhelming urge to throw it to the ground and watch it shatter into tiny little pieces. 

It is silent for a few more minutes, soundless besides from Soobin’s occasional sniffle and Yeonjun’s footsteps, which slowly die from heavy stomps to a soft tread. 

As the tension is released from his body, Yeonjun’s fists subconsciously unclench. He feels his mind slowly clear up, and once his head is no longer filled with hot rage, he stops pacing. Soobin apparently takes this as an invitation to interrupt the state of tranquility. 

The bedframe makes an awfully loud creak, and Yeonjun whirls around just in time to see Soobin halfway off the mattress. 

The two make direct eye contact, and Soobin quickly breaks it as he scrambles to get back onto the bed. Yeonjun quietly watches as Soobin picks at the bed sheets, avoiding his gaze. Finally, Yeonjun opens his mouth, intending to talk things out, when Soobin whips his head up and beats him to it. 

“Hyung, I think you’re being insensible-”

All those minutes of pacing to gain his composure go to waste as Yeonjun becomes livid again.

“Shut up! Just shut up. Don’t even utter another word until I give you permission to speak,” Yeonjun hisses. “You seriously have the audacity to call me insensible??” 

He glowers at his boyfriend to reinforce his earlier command of remaining silent, and then spins around. After grabbing his phone and aggressively punching in the passcode, he taps on the contact titled “Hyuka.” The phone only rings once before the other line picks up.

“HEY WHAT’S UP HYUNG?” 

Yeonjun jolts at Hueningkai’s ear-piercing greeting, dropping his phone in the process. The volume just happened to be turned all the way up; he internally curses at himself for forgetting to lower it. 

Soobin sniggers from next to him, and Yeonjun silently takes pleasure in noticing how Soobin quickly erupts into a fit of coughs afterwards. 

Yeonjun swiftly bends down to pick up his phone, feeling a wave of relief when he notices that there are no cracks on the screen. Making sure to turn down the volume beforehand, he gives some orders to his dongsaeng. 

“You’re going to be over here by tomorrow morning. Soobin’s sick, so he can’t come to New York with me. I need you to take care of him while I’m gone,” Yeonjun states curtly. 

“Wow, not even a ‘Kai, are you busy this week?’ You could’ve politely asked or something, but nOo-”

Yeonjun hangs up and derives satisfaction from hearing the beep cut off Hueningkai’s sarcastic tone. He rolls his shoulder back, happy to check one more thing off his to-do list. 

“Ok,” he breathes out, to no one in general.

“Hyung?” Soobin squeaks. 

“I told you not to fucking speak-”

“I just wanted to say sorry. I know that we’ve been planning this trip since forever, and I’m sorry for ruining everything. I was really excited, too, you know, and I know that you were excited as well, so I feel really, really bad that we can’t go together-” Soobin rambles, abruptly stopping in the middle of his mini speech to sneeze.

And just as quickly as it had come, Yeonjun’s anger disappears and is replaced with fondness. He’s still a little pissed off, yes, but he knows that he would regret it if he spent their last day together before the flight acting hot-tempered. 

“I guess that I’ve been a little too hard on you. I mean it wasn’t your fault that you became sick. Although you always refuse to wear a jacket whenever I tell you to, and that one windy morning when you swam in the freezing water probably contributed to your cold as well. But I mean, it isn’t really all your fault, you couldn’t have predicted it-” Yeonjun stammers, flustered, as he tries to make Soobin feel better, but he knows that if anything, he’s probably making Soobin feel even worse. 

Soobin lets out a pitiful attempt at a chuckle before he starts coughing again. 

Yeonjun decides to stop trying to verbally apologize, hoping that his actions are enough to comfort the younger. He hops onto the bed, and then positions Soobin’s head onto his lap. After telling his boyfriend to get some rest, Yeonjun contently watches as the boy’s eyelids slowly flutter shut. The sounds of Soobin's steady breathing fills the room, and a lot of time passes, a lot of time in which Yeonjun happily spends admiring Soobin's features. He is almost certain that Soobin is asleep when he feels his boyfriend suddenly clutch his fingers. His ears just barely catch the faint words that were whispered.

“Don’t have too much fun without me.”

Up until that moment, Yeonjun had been expecting to have an absolutely miserable experience at New York, so he thought that it was blatantly obvious that he wasn’t going to have fun because, plainly, Soobin wasn’t going to be there. 

  
  
  
  
  
  


Cut to three months later, Yeonjun can confidently say that he had the best time of his life.


	2. Chapter 2

Last night, Yeonjun had hastily shoved some of Soobin’s clothes and belongings into his suitcase in hopes that Soobin would have a magical recovery by the morning. 

Now, Yeonjun is standing over the boy’s sleeping body, apprehensive, with his hands hovering over Soobin’s forehead. He nervously bites his lip, and then slowly lowers his arms to let the tip of his fingers gently brush the skin beneath it. Even with a light touch, he already knows that Soobin still burning up. He lets out the breath that he didn’t know he was holding, and all of his hope dissipates. What was he expecting anyways? Taking one last wistful glance at Soobin’s fully packed suitcase propped against the bedroom wall, Yeonjun heads out, quietly shutting the door behind him. 

Huening Kai is sitting on the couch outside, his long legs resting on the coffee table. He looks completely comfortable, watching some kind of action movie while munching on a bag of chips at six in the morning. With the amount of crumbs that he’s leaving all over the seat, most would have probably guessed that this was his dorm, and not someone else’s. The volume of the movie is also way too loud; Yeonjun was able to hear the fighting sound effects all the way from Soobin’s room. 

Yeonjun should scold him, but he just can’t seem to bring himself to complain about any of the younger boy’s antics. After all, Huening Kai _did_ wake up at dawn just to do Yeonjun a huge favor, and was also content with receiving nothing in return. No, not only was he content with it, he _insisted_ that Yeonjun didn’t need to pay him anything: “I get to eat all of your junk food and lounge around all day without my parents yelling at me to go do something productive. If anything, you’re doing _me_ a favor, hyung!”

Smiling fondly at the boy, Yeonjun approaches Huening Kai, plopping down on the seat next to him. 

“Hey, seriously, thanks again for doing this. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you weren’t available.”

Huening Kai nods dismissively, eyes still glued to the screen, following the main character’s every move. 

“Yeah sure, hyung, I thought I already said that I was happy to do this. Plus, it’s summer break, of course I’m available,” he waves Yeonjun off with a flick of his hand. 

Yeonjun chuckles. “Alright. Make sure that Soobin eats breakfast and takes his medication, yeah? Don’t let him do anything stupid. And definitely do not let him leave this dorm. And also you need to- STOP WATCHING THE MOVIE YOU BRAT, AT LEAST LOOK AT ME WHEN I TALK TO YOU!”

Huening Kai rolls his eyes playfully and finally picks up the remote, pausing the movie. He offers Yeonjun a chip. 

“You’re not you when you’re hungry,” he adds. 

“I literally ate breakfast half an hour ago,” he snaps, before relaxing and reaching out to ruffle Huening Kai’s hair. “I’ll seriously miss you and Soobin. You know that we’re not seeing each other for the next three months, right?”

Huening Kai leans his head back, dumping the remaining contents of the Hot Cheetos bag into his mouth. Cheeks stuffed, he hums. 

“Yup, I know,” Huening Kai confirms after he swallows. “Make sure to update us regularly in the group chat! Like tell us when you get to the airport, once you board the flight, once you get to your hotel, tell us everything.”

“Of course I will. I’ll make sure to tell you whenever I go take a shit, too,” Yeonjun assures, only half joking.

Disgusted, Huening Kai makes a face, then turns his head back to the screen. 

“Gross,” he replies, and unpauses the movie. “Okay, bye! Have a good time!”

Yeonjun stands up, dusting off the crumbs that had gotten on his lap. Huening Kai is a messy eater.

“How cold. Not even a hug? It’s like you want to get rid of me!”

Huening Kai doesn’t respond, so Yeonjun goes to the door and steps out of his and Soobin’s small dorm, rolling his carry-on luggage behind him. 

“Fine. Have fun taking care of Soobin while I relax luxuriously in New York!” Yeonjun calls out. 

He immaturely sticks his tongue out before closing the door. After getting in his car, he begins driving to the airport. 

\--

Everyone who knows Yeonjun can confirm that he is very good at following schedules; he has never showed up late to an event _ever_. It is definitely no surprise that Yeonjun ends up at the airport 3 hours before his flight, which he genuinely finds reasonable, as he is travelling internationally. After sending a quick text to the group chat, he gets his boarding pass, gets his luggage checked, goes through security, and follows the rest of the airport procedures with no difficulties. The lines are longer than usual, so it takes a bit more time than expected to finish everything. Luckily for him, he is able to find his terminal right away. 

The waiting area is quite crowded and noisy, with little children running around, people making phone calls, and others watching videos on their devices with the volume turned way up, which Yeonjun personally finds a little discourteous. He groans when he realizes that he has an hour to kill before his plane departs. To top it all off, he is also unable to find a seat. Regretful, Yeonjun wishes that he left a bit later.

Usually, Yeonjun loves bustling atmospheres, but when he sees families and couples sitting all close, talking and laughing together, he can’t help but feel a little lonely. With nothing else to do, he opens up the group chat that he has with Soobin and Huening Kai.

**Yeonjun:**

Just arrived at the airport

_6:30AM_

**Hyuka:**

K

_6:46AM_

**-NEW-**

**Yeonjun:**

is soobin awake yet?

_8:28AM_

**Hyuka:**

no

_8:29AM_

**Yeonjun:**

im bored pls entertain me

_8:29AM_

_Read by Hyuka._

Yeonjun scoffs. Huening Kai’s terse answers as well as his lack of answers means that he must have started on another movie already. Knowing that Kai would probably continue to leave him on read if he sent anymore messages, Yeonjun opens the notes app on his phone, pressing on a document specifically titled _New York Vacation Plan!!!_

He reads through all of the activities that he was planning to do with Soobin. Suddenly, they don’t seem so fun anymore, now that he knows that he’s going to have to do them on his own. Yeonjun scrolls aimlessly through Instagram for a while, and is in the middle of drowning in self-pity when he hears a loud thud, immediately followed by some quiet sniffles. The sniffles quickly develop into intense crying. Glancing up, he spots a girl who he guesses is around his age - in her early twenties - sobbing, with a seemingly broken phone lying at her feet. 

Many people notice her. Some stare, some send strange looks her way, and others just flat out ignore her. No one approaches her or bothers to offer any comfort. And although Yeonjun knows that it’s slightly rude, he also just stares from a distance, only because he thinks that she’s overreacting a little. After all, the screen only seems to be cracked. The phone is actually still on, so it’s definitely still usable. He doesn’t know why she’s making such a huge fuss about it. 

He is still staring when she abruptly stands up and jabs a finger towards his direction. Bewildered, he starts to panic. 

“Y-you cheated on me,” she cries, with tears streaming down her face. 

_Uh, what?_

Yeonjun is about to say that he has a boyfriend when he suddenly hears someone yelp from behind him.

“Oh my god, is that my phone? You cracked my phone, you asshole!”

Yeonjun’s single brain cell finally realizes that the girl isn’t even making eye contact with him. He hastily looks back and forth between the person crying and the person shouting, and puts the pieces together. They are most likely in a relationship. The boy probably cheated on the girl. The girl broke the boy’s phone. Yeonjun is standing in between the boy and the girl. Couples tend to throw things at each other when they get into big fights. After he comes to that last realization, Yeonjun literally sprints to the right in an act of self-preservation, shielding his head. He might look dumb to an onlooker, but he knows from personal experience that when someone is angry, they can throw objects ten times as hard. 

“How could you guys do this to me? You were the two people that I trusted the most!” the girl's voice cracks. 

The guy hesitates. “I-I was going to tell you, but, uh, I forgot? I'm so fucking sorry. But I swear, I was going to tell you this week while we were at New York!”

The girl gasps. “I thought we were both excited for this trip! No wonder you paid for everything! Was this vacation just a goodbye present or something?” she demands, voice powerful. 

The guy opens his mouth, then closes it again, which basically serves as a confirmation. “Please find someone better than me,” he whispers. “You didn't deserve such a horrible boyfriend.”

At that, the girl picks up the phone lying on the ground and chucks it at the guy with full force. He easily catches it, which noticeably makes her angrier. Yeonjun thinks about how that phone would have probably hit him if he had still been standing there.

“Fuck you,” she seethes, before walking away, still weeping. 

The guy watches her for a second before he spins around and leaves in the other direction. 

It’s quiet for a moment, and then the area becomes full of noise again. Yeonjun’s heart aches for the girl. He can’t imagine how people could be insensitive enough to cheat. It’s really not that hard to break up with your partner beforehand, he thinks. Yes, feelings will be hurt, but it’s ten thousand times better than the alternative. But maybe he finds the idea so absurd because he has never been put into a position where he would even consider the idea of cheating. After all, he can’t imagine liking someone more than Soobin, and it’s even harder to conceptualize a situation in which he would choose to secretly hook up with someone else. He knows for a fact that he wouldn’t pull a jerk move like that. 

He would never cheat on Soobin. 

_Of course Yeonjun wouldn't cheat, why is he even thinking about this?_

Yeonjun goes back to aimlessly scrolling on Instagram. 


	3. Chapter 3

_“Hello, everyone. Thank you for flying with Blue Hour Airlines. Welcome aboard! Before we depart, there are some important safety instructions, so please pay attention. First things first, let’s buckle those belts. Insert the metal end into the buckle and pull the strap to tighten.”_

Yeonjun stifles a yawn as the safety demonstration video continues-- the fatigue from getting little to no sleep last night seemed to be catching up to him. Surprisingly, he hadn't felt an ounce of tiredness before he had gotten on the flight; it hit him all at once when he got settled in his airplane seat.

Hands moving sluggishly, he fastens his seatbelt as the video instructed him to do so, and turns on his phone’s airplane mode. It doesn't take long before he completely loses focus on the screen projecting the video.

Sounds become muffled as Yeonjun’s eyelids droop downwards. Accepting the fact that he would probably just die if an emergency were to happen, he stops fighting to stay awake, and allows himself to succumb to the inevitable. Slowly but surely, his consciousness ebbs away, and his eyes flicker into darkness before growing heavy and finally closing shut.

And just like that, the rest of the 5 hour flight is spent sleeping. Yeonjun also apparently snores for the entirety of it, according to the grouchy middle aged man in the neighboring seat, who actually turned out to be nice enough to wake him up when the flight ended. Exiting the plane, Yeonjun officially steps foot onto New York.

The John F. Kennedy Airport is bustling with activity, and the humongous size of the place is a little intimidating. Normally, he would have gotten even more excited for the vacation ahead, with the energy being so contagious. However, with no one by his side, everything seems dull.

Being alone in a place so foreign and overwhelming makes him want to take the next flight back home. But he knows he can't do that. It’s a silly thing to do, to even consider that possibility. The possibility of getting out of New York when he had just arrived there. But that possibility sounds more and more desirable as he stands there, back against one of the airport walls, feeling so tiny as he fights the urge to cower behind his blue luggage. He should've just canceled the flight. Stayed back with Soobin in the comfort of their dorm.

But he didn't cancel the flight, and he still has some time to kill before he is forced to check in at his hotel. Mustering up the courage, Yeonjun finally scoots away from the wall and grabs the handle of his suitcase, setting off to wander further into the JFK airport.

Idly, Yeonjun walks everywhere and nowhere, just for the sake of not staying in one place. He tries to take confident strides, as he usually does back at school where everyone knows him as one of the more popular students. If his classmates saw him now, they would definitely laugh at him. The so-called charismatic Yeonjun, getting scared because he's travelling alone.

No, Yeonjun isn't scared. He's merely discouraged, he tells himself.

Yeonjun checks the time on his phone. 5:53 PM. He’s shocked at how late it is until he remembers that New York's time zone is 3 hours ahead of what he's used to.

A few more minutes of walking takes place before Yeonjun spots it, a familiar sign in the midst of the strange environment that he’s unaccustomed to. Large and bright in all its glory, the yellow flashy M stands right ahead of him, looking as if it’s the answer to all of his problems, the end to all of his fears.

And that it is. At least for momentarily. Yeonjun forgets about everything else the second he takes a whiff of the air and smells the familiar scent of a McDonald's instead of the unappealing scent of an airport.

\--

“Hi, what can I get for you today?”

“Can I have a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and a 10 piece chicken nuggets?”

The order rolls off of Yeonjun’s tongue easily. After all, he’s asked for these exact menu items at least a couple of hundred times. The local McDonald’s near his dorm was open 24/7, and it served as his go-to place for when he was studying late into the night and felt hungry.

“Ok, that’s going to be $8.49. Would you like a receipt?”

\--

Yeonjun hates chicken nuggets. He absolutely despises them. How could he enjoy the taste and texture of chicken nuggets when they were basically just bland strips of rubber?

This is what goes through his mind when he peers into the McDonald’s bag and sees a box of that exact food. He hadn’t realized his mistake until the nuggets were actually materialized in front of his eyes.

There’s no way in hell that he would eat it.

He casually (?) strolls over to a nearby trashcan. Nervous, he briefly and hurriedly looks around to see if anyone is watching, and reaches into the bag. His hands feel around for the container with the chicken nuggets.

 _There are too many people watching. There are too many people passing by. They’re going to judge him, they’re going to think that he’s some kind of spoiled rich brat, throwing away perfectly good food like that. He should suck it up and just eat it._ His mind crowds with anxious thoughts and worries.

However, Yeonjun quickly snaps out of it. He’d rather get looked down upon by strangers than put those disgusting things in his mouth.

He holds his breath as his fingers grasp the box. Carefully lifting it out, Yeonjun extends his arm towards the top of the trashcan-

“Hey, are you gonna throw that away?”

_Fuck._

Yeonjun slowly spins around, and peers down to look at a shorter blond-haired boy. The first thing he notices are the boy’s humongous eyes. Particularly because they were red and puffy and swollen. The guy most definitely just finished crying.

Yeonjun awkwardly laughs. “No, why would you think that?”

He pulls back his arm to place the box back into the McDonald’s bag, but ungracefully drops it in the process. The guy catches the box with one hand in a swift motion, looking unimpressed at Yeonjun’s clumsiness. Leave it up to Yeonjun to be more disoriented than a guy who just completed a sob session.

“It was pretty obvious that you were throwing this away,” the boy states bluntly. He lifts the lid of the container. “Why the fuck would you throw away chicken nuggets? These are, like, the best things ever!”

“What are you talking about? They taste horrible!” Yeonjun exclaims, appalled.

The boy glances up, frowning. “To each their own, I guess. Some people just have bad taste. So, why’d you order it if you hate it so much?”

Yeonjun avoids the boy’s piercing gaze, suddenly feeling much more uncomfortable.

_Soobin. Yeonjun, being the dumbass he was, ordered it for Soobin._

Soobin absolutely loves chicken nuggets. Whenever Yeonjun went to McDonald’s, he always ordered an extra portion for his boyfriend. The guy whined and whined the first time Yeonjun got McDonald’s and didn’t get anything for him, so the chicken nuggets eventually just wedged itself into Yeonjun’s regular order.

But he didn’t want to tell this to a random stranger. It was an embarrassing thing to do, accidently ordering food for someone who was miles and miles away. Yeonjun gulps, ready to fabricate some kind of lie.

“They- um, they gave this to me on accident. The workers probably messed it up with someone else’s order. And, uh, I was too scared to tell them that they got my order wrong. Because, um, introvert things?” Yeonjun stumbles over his words, uncomfortably chuckling at the end.

Is it the New York air? Yeonjun doesn’t remember being this dumb back in California. The lie that he had just made up sounded both unconvincing and even more stupid than the actual truth.

The boy laughs, has the audacity to make a joke out of everything. Yeonjun’s cheeks heat up, and he’s sure that his face and the tips of his ears have just turned red. Thankfully, the boy quickly stops laughing, and opens his mouth to speak.

“God, you’re like the second worst liar that I’ve ever met. After Beomgyu, but you’re a close second,” the boy smiles. _Who the fuck is Beomgyu?_

“My name’s Taehyun. I hope you didn’t poison these nuggets or anything, because I’m gonna take it and eat it. Are you a tourist?”

“My name’s Yeonjun, and yeah, this is my first time at New York.”

“Just some quick advice, Parliament Espresso and Coffee Bar has the best cappuccinos. I’ll see you around?”

“Yeah, sure!” Yeonjun returns the smile, but internally prays that he’ll never see Taehyun ever again. He had made a more than regrettable first impression.

Taehyun walks away after waving, carrying the box of chicken nuggets with him. Yeonjun stays where he is, next to the trashcan, and devours the whole burger within a few bites after Taehyun is out of sight.

With the initial fear of travelling alone pushed to the back of his mind after this little incident, Yeonjun makes his way to the exit of the airport, ready to venture out into the unfamiliar city beyond the safety within the walls of this large building.

**New York City** _[definition]:_ a place that Yeonjun would eventually learn to cherish because it was the birthplace of a certain boy who was apparently an even worse liar than he himself.


End file.
